Mishka Zolnerowich
Mishka is the main focus of Shattered Reflection Early Life Mishka along with her twin sister, Milena, was born in Germnay in 1916 to Borya and Anna Zolnerowich. The two Russians had immigrated to Germany a few years earlier to escape the Russian Revolution, as such their daughters grew up speaking Russian and German. Mishka, much to her parents' delight and sister's dismay, was a very timid and eager to please girl. She believed traditional was the best way to live ones life and followed in her mother's footsteps, being married quite young to a boy she had known since childhood. Despite their differences, the two sisters were very close, and Mila always looked out for Mishka, and was the only bridesmaid at her wedding in 1936. Sadly, Mishka's husband died from illness only a few years after they were married, Mishka confessing to her twin that she had known he would die all along. After this, Mishka moved back in with her family. Imprisonment In 1941 Mila and Mishka fled to France after both their parents were killed in Nazi demonstrations. Taking on new identities as non-Jews, the sisters go into hiding, rarely leaving their tiny apartment, and learning English to avoid being eaves dropped on. Their life continues this way for two years before they are reported to the SS by a neighbor. In 1943, Mila and Mishka are sent with a group of other Jewish twins to a Nazi hospital where they are shaved, beaten, and brutally experimented on. Milena withstands this treatment better than Mishka, who falls easily ill and has little hope of surviving. In December of that year, the Basterds raid the hospital, killing SS members and freeing the Jewish prisoners. At the time of their arrival, Mishka is being transported to another hospital site in order to see whether or not experiments done from afar on one twin will affect the other. When she wakes to find her sister not at the hospital, she believes her to be dead and attempts to kill herself. The doctors save her however and she is brutally beaten as punishment and told horrible things about her sister's unknown fate. The next few months pass in a catatonic blur of Mishka. She is regularly experimented on as well as abused, but outwardly she shows no emotion until she is rescued. Becoming a Bastard Months after being moved to the hospital, the Basterds raid the building and save Mishka who at the time is unresponsive and appears dead. Utivich is the only one to realize she has a pulse and so takes her, covered in dirt, back to the camp where she is tended to by Milena though neither of them realize this (Mishka believing she is hallucinating her sister's voice) until her face has been washed. The twins have a tear filled reunion and Mila works to convince Mishka that the Basterds are good men that can be trusted and should be helped. Mishka is reluctant to hurt anyone, including Nazis, and so is left behind during most missions, though in the beginning her sister stay behind with her. Eventually she is left alone however, and from a bit away from the camp, she notices an SS member has come across their things. Knowing he will report back to someone, Mishka takes Donny's bat and bludgeons the man to death. The group return to her convered in his blood and crying. After this she is given a gun. Smithson Utivich Mishka only agrees to stay to be near Mila. She becomes the camp's cook and nurse, patching up the men even though she is horribly afraid of most of them; especially Aldo and Hugo. Utivich is the only one she allows close since she remembers him saving her from the hospital. The two have a rocky relationship at first, her believing he only shows interest because of her likeness to her sister, and him believing she does not want another man after her husband (having heard about him from Mila weeks earlier). Eventually the two find a common ground (and language) and agree to try it though currently they are remaining platonic, though Mishka eventually calls their situation a mockery. Operation Kino After her sister's untimely death, Mishka in inconsolable, blaming the Basterds for the tragedy. Eventually Smithson is able to calm her and convince her the only person to blame is Hitler and his Nazis. With a new outlook, Mishka agrees to take her twin's place in the plan and helps the Basterds to infiltrate the premier in order to kill Hitler. She narrowly escaped the burning building with her life, coming just in time to surrender herself to Landa once she realizes he has Aldo and Utivich in toe. In transit, she confesses to Utivich that she had only been avoiding him because she was afraid of losing anymore people, but is not afraid anymore because she knows it cannot be avoided. He agrees with this and the two hold hands, admiring Aldo's work as he cuts a Swastika into Landa's forehead signalling the end of the story.